Violence in Yemen crippling efforts to improve water safety

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A lack of water and access to basic sanitation services in Yemen risks a new wave of cholera breaking out, with Unicef’s senior water advisor warning the worst is yet to come if the conflict there is not stopped.

Sami Abubakr wishes to experience Yemen as he did as a child. “There was good jobs, hope, peace, all happy,” says the 61-year-old leader of Unicef’s Water and Sanitation projects in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital.

“[The] violence [has] increased the problem of safe water in terms of quality and quantity,” he told WikiTribune while in England visiting family.

So far in 2018, there have been 154,527 suspected cholera cases and 197 associated deaths reported across Yemen, according to a new report by the Yemen Emergency Operations Centre. Nearly one-third (30 percent) of cases affected children under five years old.

Spiralling cases of the infectious, water-borne disease has been directly linked to inadequate water resources. The country was already facing a severe shortage of drinking water, but water infrastructure has been repeatedly attacked by insurgents and services have been cut off. People including children drink unsafe and polluted water.

An offensive by the Saudi-led coalition to regain control of port city of Hodeidah from Houthi rebels increased civilian deaths by 164 percent in four months. In turn, conditions for most have worsened.

A civil war in the Arab sovereign state has been ongoing since 2015 following a crisis that can be traced to the 2011 Arab Spring. Civil unrest, political tensions and bombing tirades are grave threats to citizens. (Read WikiTribune’s explainer on the Yemeni crisis here.)

Health facilities across Hodeidah recorded a 170 percent increase in the number of suspected cholera cases, from 497 in June to 1,342 in August, according to UK-based non-profit Save the Children in a new report. The coastal region, also a humanitarian access point, is currently a contested frontline, with the latest wave of fighting there killing 166 people a month.

But water is a more basic concern than bullets and bombs. And where there is access to it, it is often contaminated or polluted.

“People think it’s war that affects children but it’s really their access to basic services that affects them,” said Timothy Grieve, Unicef’s Senior Advisor on Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Abubakr believes the number of those without access to water has increased to more than half of the population.

Before the conflict, every person in Yemen was entitled to 60 litres of water a day, he explained. This included water for drinking, washing and cooking. Since the conflict has totally crippled supplies, everyone is limited to just 20 litres per day.

For comparison, in the United States, the average family uses more than 300 gallons (1300 litres) of water every day (United States Environmental Protection Agency). On average, every person in the UK uses 150 litres of water each day (Cambridge Water).

Abubakr described how women and children in Yemen’s rural areas have to walk three to five hours to fetch their daily allowance of 20 litres of water.

These long and arduous journeys to contaminated water points are a direct result of the worsening conflict and targeting of water systems.

“This is not right,” he said.

International aid group Save The Children estimates that at least 130 children die every day in Yemen from extreme hunger and disease. It said more than 50,000 children died in 2017.

But the famine in Yemen, that has been ongoing since the start of the civil war, is only worsened by the devastation of infrastructure and facilities.

Abubakr is confident that many more water-related deaths are to come.

“Children in yemen are suffering and suffering and will suffer in [the] future also if this war will not be stopped.”

“Decades of underdevelopment, compounded by the ongoing violence and repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure have left social services barely functioning and the entire country of the verge of collapse,” Grieve told WikiTribune.

Unicef has been working in Yemen to prevent further attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure to stop contamination and denial of humanitarian access. Attacks on Hodeidah have prevented some aid groups getting services and water to civilians.

“Attacks on water infrastructure jeopardize efforts to prevent further [cholera] outbreaks,” said Grieve.

What if we told you that you’ve used a weapon of war today? #WWWeek https://t.co/lRreEFZYDo

The conflict in Yemen is making the water situation in Yemen “much worse,” said Collin Douglas, a research fellow at The Center for Climate and Security, a U.S. non-profit focusing on climate affairs.

“The crisis was elevated with the political dysfunction and violence we’ve seen over the past eight to ten years,” said Douglas.

Before the conflict, Yemen’s water instability was a result of the government’s inability to adapt to population growth and govern water resources, he said, adding that long-term solutions do not seem likely in the near future.

“With the scale of the humanitarian crisis right now along with the fact that the fighting doesn’t seem to be slowing, it’s impossible to know when Yemen will see water stability again.”

“Yemen is a country that has extreme poverty, very little development, few prospects, and no voice on the international stage. Countries and people in similar situations will be the ones paying the highest price for water conflicts.”

Race against time

Time is “running out” to prevent the situation from worsening, said Maude Barlow, a water activist and co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, a global “water justice” movement.

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